A typical EHR/PM system leads to higher reimbursement rates due to enhanced levels of documentation. However, this increase can be offset by ongoing maintenance and customization costs. Physicians should evaluate a system’s potential by asking:

• How likely is it that I will be able to see more patients? If so, how many more patients per day and per week?
• How will seeing more patients translate into increased revenues and reimbursement for the practice?
• Does the EHR/PM system deliver on promised features and allow participation in payment incentives like PQRI reporting?

Physicians should understand how these features work, the time required to learn them and how they have generated benefits for other practices. Physicians will want to make sure the vendor will meet the government’s “meaningful use” requirements by learning if the EHR includes the following elements:

• Patient demographic and clinical health information
• Decision support for physician order entry, capture and query of information on quality
• Electronic exchange of health information
• Integration of health information with other sources

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